The Day in Photos (June 2, 2010)

CALIFORNIA - Burrowing owl siblings peek out from their nest at Green Tree Golf Club in Vacaville,.

AP/Photo/The Reporter, Rick Roach

SOUTH AFRICA - A street seller offers merchandise in the colors of the South African flag for soccer fans at an intersection in Johannesburg. The World Cup soccer begins June 11.

AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan

ISRAEL - Israeli youths release balloons during a rally in support of the Israeli army following a deadly raid by Israel’s navy on an aid flotilla bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip. In a stunning reversal that illustrated the severity of the diplomatic fallout from its bloody raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, Israel on Wednesday dropped plans to prosecute dozens of the captured pro-Palestinian activists, moving instead to deport all of them quickly. The turnabout came as international condemnation intensified over the raid Monday on the high seas in which nine people were killed and dozens wounded, with Israel resisting calls for an independent inquiry.

AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner

NEW YORK - New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio gestures as he arrives on stage to accept the nomination for governor during the New York State Republican Convention.

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

PORT ST. LUCIE - St. Lucie County Sheriff Crime Scene Investgator Donna Carmichael looks for fingerprints on the door of Chase Bank at Entrada Avenue and Earon Drive after it was robbed.

FORT PIERCE - Several members of the St. Lucie Mets visited C.A. Moore Elementary School to read and talk with the students on the importance of reading. St. Lucie Mets second baseman Hector Pellot, right, read to kindergarten and Pre-K classes in the morning and got an unexpected high-five from the kids on their way out of the classroom. The kids were all given a challenge to read 20 different times for 15 minutes each and receive two free tickets to a home game at Digital Domain Park.

JENSEN BEACH - Tuckahoe Mansion tour guide Tom Gerace, far right, answers a question from Vivian Smith, a mansion tourist from Jensen Beach who was visiting the home for her first time. Yesterday was the opening day for free public tours of the mansion, which are currently available on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Guided tours last about 30 minutes and information is available for self-guided tours as well. Hours that the mansion will be open to the public will be expanded if enough volunteers are found to tend to tourists.

VERO BEACH - Attorney Gregory Eisenmenger, left, confers with his client disbarred attorney Ira Hatch following an argument with the prosecution during the opening statements before the jury at the Indian River County Courthouse. Hatch is facing 46 charges for allegedly pilfering about $4.5 million from his business.

FORT PIERCE - Road construction traffic flagmen Bobby McRae, left, and Lawrence Stapleton, both of Labor Finders, walk past several toppled palm trees recently planted along South Causeway Park on Seaway Drive after a passing storm front passed over the area bringing wind gusts of around 60 mph and heavy rain. Many of the recently added trees were knocked town or bent over from the new traffic roundabout to south bridge. Crews from Natures Keeper in Fort Pierce were on hand to replant the toppled palms.

PENNSYLVANIA - President Barack Obama takes the stage to speak about the economy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

ITALY - Pope Benedict XVI waves as he is driven through the crowd during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Benedict XVI says he is anxiously following the news about the deadly Israeli raid on aid ships for the Gaza Strip and worries about its consequences for Middle East peace. Benedict on Wednesday told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square that violence will generate more violence and have ‘’dramatic consequences.’’

AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

CHINA - An elderly Chinese man looks on while walking in a hutong, or a traditional alleyway of Beijing.

AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen

GAZA STRIP - A Palestinian relative of Islamic Jihad militant Muhammed Shahwan reacts at the family house during his funeral in Khan Younis refugee camp. Shahwan was one of two militants killed while infiltrating into Israel from Gaza, Israeli military said.

AP Photo/Khalil Hamra

SOUTH AFRICA - Two African penguins bask in the sun at the South African Foundation for the conservation of Coastal Birds care center in Cape Town. Thousands of tourist are expected in South Africa for the Soccer World cup.

AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam

ALABAMA - Mary Smith of Theodore, Ala., watches over her grandchildren as a large crew of clean up workers walk along the beach in Dauphin Island. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster has started washing ashore on the Alabama coast.

AP Photo/Dave Martin

FRANCE - France national soccer team players attend a training session as French police officers look on at Michel Volnay stadium in Saint Pierre, in the French overseas territory of La Reunion Island. The French team will play China, on June 4, the last of its three preparation matches, in Saint Pierre de la Reunion, ahead of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

AP Photo/Francois Mori

GREECE - Greek police and firemen are seen at the entrance of a bank pulling out a man who set himself on fire, apparently to protest his financial situation, in Thessaloniki. Police said the man, who entered the Piraeus Bank branch with a can of fuel and set himself ablaze, was taken out unconscious and hospitalized with non life-threatening burns on his arms. Greece is in the midst of a debt crisis, and many people have trouble repaying bank loans.

AP Photo/Giorgos Nisiotis

KAZAKHSTAN - In a photo provided by NASA, Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov is carried in a chair to the medical tent just minutes after he and fellow crew members T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi landed in their Soyuz TMA-17 capsule near the town of Zhezkazgan. NASA astronaut Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Kotov and Japanese astronaut Noguchi are returning from six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 22 and 23 crews.

NASA/Bill Ingalls

PAKISTAN - People cool off under water from a leaking pipe line as temperature reaches up to 111.2 Fahrenheit in suburb of Islamabad. Summertime temperatures have shot up in most of Pakistan, touching 127.4 Fahrenheit in some parts of southern Sindh province in recent days, according to Pakistan Met office.

AP Photo/B.K.Bangash

FRANCE - Spain’s Rafael Nadal returns the ball to compatriot Nicolas Almagro during their quarterfinal match for the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris.

AP Photo/Christophe Ena

SOUTH AFRICA - South African kids play soccer in an open field as the sun sets in Soweto. The Soccer World Cup 2010 begins June 11.